"And his coat was torn and frayed / It had seen much better days" (Jagger/Richards)

April 10, 2010

Santa Ana Racetrack, RIP

I was expecting to be depressed when I cycled down to see the corpse of the Santa Ana Racetrack yesterday and that's how it turned out.

Luckily I had a chance to enjoy Santa Ana’s shabby glory before this remnant of the American era was bulldozed. The track and its grandstand appealed to me for so many reasons.

There was the sense of space; from your seat you had uninterrupted views across the Pasig and across Makati to Rockwell. Manila seemed a lovely city from Santa Ana at night.

Then there was the shady atmosphere; the touts with fags in their mouths, the old guys who had spent a lifetime at the track, the sense of collapse and decay.

Bringing all these together was the main grandstand, an art deco building from, I would guess, the 1930s, the same period as the Sy-Quia buildings in Malate and the former Jai Alai building on Taft (thank you Lito Atienza for destroying that particular historic monument). The grandstand really was quite grand and was an important historic link to a more elegant Manila. Nothing now remains of that impressive structure but a few stumps standing defiantly above the rubble.

It does not surprise me that the racetrack is being converted to more profitable uses. After all, it occupied a huge chunk of prime urban land on the border between Manila and Makati. Even if it the track had been a profitable venture (and the tiny entrance charges, small crowds, and insignificant bets meant it almost certainly wasn’t), the realities of property prices would surely have pushed the track outside the city boundaries sooner or later (just as happened with the beautiful Kuala Lumpur racetrack in the 1990s).

Still, I wish one of the architectural preservation societies in Manila had managed to save the grandstand, though such groups have had few, if any, successes in recent years. Couldn’t some imagination have been used to convert the grand old dame of Manila horseracing into something quite distinctive?

I wonder whether anyone even took any photos of the Santa Ana grandstand before they tore it down. Or whether anyone cares about these issues at all.

From this entry in WikiPilipinas it appears the Santa Ana site is to be a mall (what a surprise). It will be run, of course, by SM, who fatuously describe themselves on billboards as “the good guys.” Thanks a lot “good guys.”

There is another great post about the racetrack from Gogirl Cafe -- it has lots of atmospheric photos (the one above was borrowed from the site). It also has a number of poignant comments from people who either lived in Santa Ana or worked at the racetrack.

Comments

My apologies for being out-of-place. I just would like to establish awareness.

Do consider
5. Dr. Martin Bautista
for the next elections obviously (a senatorial candidate of Liberal Party). He’s a 47-year-old gastroenterologist in the US who came home after 17 years. You can see from his background that he truly means service. For those who find him to be a hypocrite for working abroad, do understand he’s a family man who needs to sustain his family, that he will be able to keep his independence by not relying on public funds to support his family. He helps his countrymen in his capacity but it’s just not enough for there are millions of Filipinos. And as proof of his sincerity, he didn’t renounce his citizenship nor became a dual citizen even if he was long eligible. He’s able to work in the US by being a legalized alien instead. It’s a good start in Philippine Politics to have him around.
He used to be with the 'Ang Kapatiran' party but because of internal conflicts, he's now with Liberal Party. But allow me to discuss this Ang Kapatiran party.
The BIG DIFFERENCE is the ‘Ang Kapatiran’ party is God-centered. There is no lesser-evil component. Its members will be disciplined by its own party should they stray from its code of ethics. They promised to restore what a true public servant means: to serve the public and not make it as a means of livelihood.
Below are the lists of Senatoriables of the Ang Kapatiran:

You will be able to gauge Dr. Martin Bautista's intelligence by reading the articles he posts in his website here:http://mbautistamd.blogspot.com/
I urge you to INFORM BY E-MAIL/TEXT/INFORM all your contacts about them. I believe they only lack exposure that’s why I’m doing this. But I can’t do it alone so I’m appealing to everyone’s help. If all will inform their contacts about them and urge them as well to forward, we might hit millions.
We cannot afford to be indifferent now if we want meaningful change. Otherwise we only have ourselves to blame. BUT TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

It's such as shame to see these racetracks fall by the wayside all over the place. I visited Manila wanting to see Santa Ana and place a few bets, but was told by a local friend that it had closed. It's the same with Walthamstow dog track in London - sold to make space for flats. A crying shame..

The 'man' does it again - what a shame to loose Santa Ana after all these years. With the way things are going there are only going to be huge shopping malls and condos in the centre of Manila, and nothing with any sparkle or life.

I have to say that Im really unimpressed with this. I mean, sure, youve got some very interesting points. But this blog is just really lacking in something. Maybe its content, maybe its just the design. I dont know. But its almost like you wrote this because everybodys doing it. No passion at all.

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